| svenues14:35 UTC09 Jun 2018 | Hello
Did a visit to some pacific countries and among them Kiribati. It was nice and like to share some insights.
THe full report, please take a look here with photo and maps. Visiting Kiribati during Oceania trip
APRIL 30 - ARRIVING
After a night in Fiji, the trip continued this morning from Nadi to the capital of Kiribati which is Tarawa. After 3 hours the Fiji Airways flight approached the thin long stripe of sand with a lot of palm trees on it, doesn't look like a place to live but it was actually Tarawa.
Based on my negative prejudices I thought I will step out of the plane and directly the onto some kind of trash-filled garbage bag and then have to crawl myself from garbage bag to garbage bag towards a taxi which is equipped with huge wheels, made to drive over garbage. In reality however, the total difference was the case.
There was a small airport, yes, but clean, maybe a bit run down, yes, but not garbage yard as I expected due to my research and reading of articles and blogs about the country. It was definitely not like that and it seemed they had found some motivation to start to clean up the country. I was greeted with many friendly MAURI's (hello) from all possible locals waiting in the parking area and my transport was already waiting for me with a sign. Most accommodations provide free transport as there are no taxis in Kiribati. Oh yes, the air-conditioned 4wd. What a relieve in that humid heat. The weather in Fiji was already HOT and humid, but here in Kiribati it was unbearable in the first moments! The ride to the Betio Lodge was about one hour, all along the one and only main road which is 30km and leads to the whole country from east to west. There is this main concrete road and about between 5 and 50 meters living area on each side and then, the far-reaching south pacific ocean. The main road is like a bridge through the ocean and with the highest point of the country, which is 3 meters above sea level, not a really high “bridge”.
BETIO IS ON THE VERY EAST OF TARAWA
At the most eastern part of Tarawa, there is the place small city Betio, where I was staying. It was difficult to figure out which area its best to stay at as a tourist and I went for Betio as there were all the WWII relics, guns and tanks.
Also, there are a few restaurants to eat on a western standard, as many foreign people are working in the area. Met some workers in the restaurants and they had jobs like tuna vessel engineer, tuna vessel helicopter pilot, tuna vessel boat captain, sanitary engineer, human rights activist, airport security engineer. So it was interesting to hear some of their stories.
VISITING THE WWII RELICS
This was my major intention here in Kiribati. To visit those cool relics! As almost all the WWII relics are located at the shore, one could think that there it might always be a bit windy but that wasn’t the case and normally isn’t the case.
There are three impressive cannons in a relatively good condition and one is lying in the sand. Canon on the very east is right in the neighborhood and families to live in their houses as neighbors of the huge canon. When asking people about the canons, they don’t really understand what I meant. The canons are huge and right on the shore. But it isn’t a nice place to walk as it is full of trash. Also, people are sitting in the ocean and do their morning business there.
Originally there were two tanks lying in the sand, both north of Betio. However, one of them has been removed as it broke apart due to rust. The other one is at the so-called “Red Beach” and is still in a good condition and in high tide, the half of the tank is visible and on low tide it's completely uncovered and accessible by walking there.
SCUBA DIVING IN TARAWA? EHMMM... OK NO THANKS BYE
I tried hard to find a scuba operator who takes me out to some reef around Tarawa or even better, to some relics. Unfortunately, none of the contacts was helpful as no answer or wrong email address.
So I had to research about it while I'm here. The visitor information was the only source from which I got a contact. They didn’t have it in their brochure yet but they found a small card of one, the only one, dive shop in Tarawa.
The only dive operator in whole Tarawa. Using my speedbike, it was a quick ride to Matt’s dive center. The dive center didn’t have big advertisements or signs to recognize it as the ultimate dive center of Tarawa. But it was the correct house I arrived and one of the two people who was digging some whole in front of the house was Matt the owner. And they are the dive operator. It's not a typical dive shop for tourists, but for cleaning boats or doing underwater engineering. However, he takes out tourists too when there is an inquiry. Soon I realized though, that scuba diving won't going to happen for me in Tarawa, cause the price was just too steep. 250 AUD for a two tank dive. I wanted to go diving in Kiribati, but not for every price. Also, I had no information about which dive spots or what to see, as he only told me we can go diving around the reef. Instead of diving in a dive spot maybe full of trash, I preferred to follow the plan B on my itinerary, which is visiting an outer reef or Kiribati.
MAY 2 - WITH THE MOTORBIKE TO NORTH TARAWA
Was busy yesterday afternoon finding a motorbike to rent. There are a few places in the directory but none of them has a correct phone number. Except one. Even an official one and that was right around the corner inside the Georges Hotel. However, when I asked them about renting they told me that they have only ONE motorbike in total, which is a) around 20 years old and b) belongs to a staff who does the daily purchases in the markets. So if the staff is shopping with the motorbike, there are 0 motorbikes available.
I really wanted to go to a real outer Kiribati island and opted for Abaiang, which is the closest one. However, not close enough to do it in a day trip and boats are running about two or three times a week. I had the chance to go for one of it but I found it to be too stressful, as accommodation there needed to be organized by some locals and also there is not much to do all day long on these small outer islands.
TOWARDS NORTH TARAWA
Instead of Abaiang, I decided to go to North Tarawa and based on locals, the scenery is the same beautiful as on one of the outer islands. The advantage is that I would be able to get back the same day. All the way from Betio (left on South Tarawa) to the border of Buatio (right on South Tarawa) it is a long pleasant ride. Also feels very hot, especially when coming almost directly from a European spring. Outside of the three bigger villages of Betio, Bairiki, Beukenibeu, I didn’t find any restaurants. North Tarawa has no concrete streets like south Tarawa. Only off-road tracks through sand and through the water. There is a short bridge which technically connects south and north, but just the very tiny beginning of North Tarawa.
NO STREETS AND RESTAURANTS ANYMORE AFTER BUOTA:(
Buota is the first village in North Tarawa and the only village which is possible to drive to. Also here started the area where I didn’t find any restaurants at all anymore, even I knew based on the map I had, that there must be some kind of “restaurant” somewhere. But they that information a) not accurate or b) simply having no sign to easily locate them. Glad that I brought enough water with me, as after Buatio I didn’t find a store or something where I can buy bottled water. So after Buatio its necessary to walk, wade through low tide between the small villages in North Tarawa as all of them are separated by water. Its possible to move between them when the tide is low. When the there is high tide, locals provide transport with a canoe.
I thought when people living in North Tarawa, there also surely is a way which allows me to easily move forward. But I was wrong. Had to drop the Motorbike in Buatio and continue by walking. The small villages in North Tarawa are all separated on small islets and between is shallow water on low tide and more than 1 meter on high tide. Wading through the low tide is nice, its like standing between two islands basically in the middle of the ocean.
My goal so far was to reach the so-called “Broken Bridge”, which is around after 6km in North Tarawa, and then return. I expected to go much further in North Tarawa, but due to the heat and not many places with shade, I settled with the plan to reach the “broken bridge” and call it a nice excursion :)
THE OMINOUS TRASH PROBLEM IN KIRIBATI
When I arrived in Tarawa I didn't really see the problem. Now after a few days, I do.
Waste management is a high-in-demand job, also in Kiribati. And it's clearly visible why. While driving through Tarawa its impossible not to notice the severe trash problem they have. Yes, they started to build waste stationaries, like the one right next to the WW2 memorial :), but beach it's still heavily polluted. Totally understand that it's not easy for people there, as there is simply not enough space. With 116000 people living on such a small island, its necessary to live cramped next to each other and somewhere needs the waste to be discarded. The only place then is the beach.
Probably the most effective recycling mechanism are the pigs between the houses, who are eating anything that looks organic.
SEVERE LACK OF SANITARY SOLUTIONS
What I soon noticed all over in Tarawa is, that many people are quietly sitting somewhere in the ocean in a shallow place with calm water and no waves. Soon I realized that they are not fishing or watching Netflix on their smartphones out there, but having their morning toilet. Yes, I realized that people all over here are shitting in the ocean.
However, the locals are not to judge or even to blame for this. There is a severe lack of sanitary infrastructure all over Kiribati and therefore the only option is the ocean. Hopefully the governement of Kiribati continues spending money on waste management, the same way as they have done recent years and maybe one day everyone has a toilet back home.
MAY 3 - BINGO ADDICTION IN KIRIBATI IS REAL
Once the sun is starting to go down and the heat stops to torture, it gets very lively out there in the streets. Many people are up and ready for attending the bi-weekly Bingo sessions which is an activity where the whole district is attending. They even have their open air halls which are used as their Bingo arenas :). I was buffed when I passed that. So many people are fascinated about playing Bingo and I also was fascinated to see so many big (fat) people in one place to have their communal Bingo sessions.
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